Open Letter to Secretary Zinke on Fee Trust Lands

As officers of the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR), an organization with 31 chapters in WashingtonState and California dedicated to protecting and promoting property rights for all Americans, we are writing you torequest that the Department of the Interior make the impact on local communities a primary consideration whendetermining whether to approve tribal requests to convert land outside their reservations from fee to trust. This hasbecome a controversial issue in many jurisdictions in our two states and we suspect across the nation as a whole.

A tribe gaining ownership of land outside the boundaries of its reservation through purchase or other means isfollowed invariably by requests to place the property in federal trust status. To date, this generates almostautomatic approval from the BIA. The result is the property and any enterprises and residences contained thereinare removed from the tax rolls of local jurisdictions. Towns, cities and counties, often strapped for revenue, are thenforced to increase taxes on remaining citizens or cut back and/or relinquish necessary services.

Secondly, but just as consequential, any non-tribal person or business owner living on the acquired property losesrepresentation guaranteed to him or her by the U.S. Constitution. At the local level, non-tribal citizens of the UnitedStates can not cast a ballot in a tribal election on matters that will affect them. Even though they can vote in federal,state and some local elections, they get no say in what the tribe decides about their future as long as they live or dobusiness at that location.

In recent years, we’ve noticed a determined effort by certain tribes and their leaders to increase their political powerand influence, corresponding to an increase in gaming income. Flush with gambling money, tribes use the funds tomake generous campaign donations, lobby legislators and government officials, and purchase property. Note thattribes are the only jurisdictional authorities in the United States allowed to make direct contributions to candidates orballot measures. State and local governments are prevented by law from doing that. None of these activities appearto be illegal, but one wonders if any of that money ever filters down to actually benefit tribal members living on thereservations.

In some locations, we suspect that a kind of “retribution across the generations” is being practiced as more radicalelements apparently seek to displace non-tribal citizens, prevent growth and hinder traditional productive activitiessuch as agriculture.

In Washington’s rural Skagit County, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community under the leadership of itsChairman, Brian Cladoosby, who is also President of the National Congress of American Indians, was responsiblefor the infamous “What’s Upstream” ad campaign that attacked the state’s farming operations, drawing the ire ofseveral U.S. Senators and Representatives, loss of water rights by home owners relying on wells, and an attempt toexpropriate commercial and residential property outside established tribal reservation boundaries. ChairmanCladoosby was also part of the Standing Rock “No-DAPL” protest. Reportedly, Cladoosby has made statementsthat his goal is to control and extend jurisdictional authority over all of the county.

This is an unhealthy situation that not only threatens to create further animosity between tribal and non-tribalresidents, but if preferential treatment of tribal gambling continues alongside blank check authorization of fee totrust land conversions without proper scrutiny of the interests of all parties, rights guaranteed for all citizens by ourConstitution are lost and local non-tribal jurisdictions will continue to suffer significantly as tribal power and landholdings continue to grow.

To protect our communities and restore balance, we ask you to consider the following actions:1. Make tribes subject to the same requirements and restrictions on political donations to which the rest ofcitizens and entities are subject.2. Stop federal grant funding that is aiding tribes’ inordinate power over land and water use (such as the USEPA funding of the “What’s Upstream” propaganda attack on agriculture)3. Place a hold on fee-to-trust conversions pending legislation that balances the playing field, including withrespect to points 1 and 2 above.Thank you for your consideration on this very important matter.